The James Shields Memorial Award for Twin Research
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Redux: The James Shields Memorial Award for Twin Research Irving I. Gottesman James Shields co-authoring the 1953 monograph on psychotic and neu- After a hiatus of some 15 years, and following on a sugges- rotic illnesses in twins that Slater had commenced before tion from Nick Martin to publicly reconstruct the roots of the start of World War II. Shields’ own monograph on modern twin research strategies for a contemporary audi- monozygotic twins brought up apart and brought up ence, the James Shields Memorial Award for Twin Research together was published in 1962, rivaling and surpassing the was happily restored. The fact that our conversation took infamous reports by Sir Cyril Burt. It was also in 1962 that place during a meeting — “The Future of Behavioural our lives began to entwine, at first by post, and the next Genetics in a Post-Genomic World” — we attended in year in person, at which time we were paired by Slater to Hinxton at the Sanger Centre under the auspices of The study the twins with possible schizophrenia diagnoses in Wellcome Trust, guided by Robert Plomin, John DeFries, the Maudsley Twin Register that had been initiated by Peter McGuffin, and Ian Craig, made it a timely sugges- Slater and Shields in 1948 and at that time contained some tion. It is inefficient to construe the future without an 590 probands from consecutive admissions to the accurate appreciation of the past. Maudsley-Royal Bethlem Hospitals. He was a prolific The Award was initiated after the untimely death of author and mentor to a world-wide group of twin investi- Shields in 1978, shortly before his 60th birthday, at the gators. Among his awards were the Hofheimer Prize (1973) peak of a brilliant career as a scholar and world-renowned from the American Psychiatric Association, and a rare twin researcher. I invited Len Heston, David Fulker, and Honorary Degree of Doctor of Medicine (1975) from the Dick Rose to join me in establishing the memorial; the University of Zurich, following in the footsteps of Miss award was thereafter to be made at the annual meetings of Anna Freud, also without a higher degree. We worked the Behavior Genetics Association. It will now be adminis- closely in every respect implied by a meeting of minds, tered by Greg Carey (USA), Chair, Nick Martin (Australia), until his death. Jerry Shields was indeed a man for all Hill Goldsmith (USA), and Irv Gottesman (USA, ex seasons, an exemplar to us all. officio), and it will be awarded at the international con- Jaakko Kaprio: Acceptance gresses of the International Society for Twin Studies. The list Speech July 7, 2001 of awardees up through 1986 is comprised of the following eminent (then young) twin researchers: Aksel Bertelsen It is a great honour for me to (Denmark, 1985), Ronald Wilson (USA, 1980), Peter receive the James Shields Propping (Germany, 1983), Lindon Eaves (UK/USA, award. He is recognized for 1981), Nick Martin (Australia, 1986), Dick Rose (USA, his work in psychiatric genet- 1982), and Hill Goldsmith (USA, 1984). Continuing the ics here at the Institute of tradition, and the recognition of excellence, after the redux Psychiatry in London, but we have (see below) Jaakko Kaprio (Finland, 2001). especially for his landmark Jaakko Kaprio study of monozygotic twins The Life of James Shields reared apart and reared together. I would like to thank the International Society for Twin Studies, its In brief (cf. In Memoriam published Behavior Genetics, 9, Board of Officers and the award committee for con- 1–16, 1979 and Acta Geneticae Medicae et Gemellologiae, sidering me worthy of this distinguished prize. I 28, 83–90, 1979 by I.I. Gottesman), James Shields rose believe I have received it in recognition not only of above traumatic life events to achieve his greatness as an my personal merits, but also as a representative of the intellectual and as a scientist. He was captured in combat researchers who have worked with me on the Finnish near Dunkirk in 1940 at age 22, serving as a decorated Twin Cohort study as well as on behalf of those who gunner in the Royal Artillery, and spent five years in a pris- have worked in behavioural genetics and twin studies oner-of-war Stalag. Fate struck again in 1954, during his in Finland. In the 1930s a Finnish psychologist Arvo field work on the then largest ever study of identical twins Lehtovaara carried out the first large twin study in reared apart, when he contracted polio and survived a bout Helsinki on children examining a wide range of traits. in an iron lung. He had commenced work in 1947 as psy- Some 30 years later, alcohol-related behaviours were chiatric social worker and research associate to Eliot Slater studied among male twin pairs born in 1920–1929 [1904 – 1983] at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, 484 Twin Research Volume 4 Number 6 pp. 484–485 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.33.42, on 28 Sep 2021 at 02:33:58, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1375/twin.4.6.484 Redux: The James Shields Memorial Award for Twin Research by a group of researchers at and associated with the many people have been involved in the Finnish Twin State Alcohol monopoly research institute. Their Cohort study, I would like to thank in particular work, notably reported in the monograph by professor Markku Koskenvuo for many years of close Partanen, Markkanen and Bruun, was the first to and fruitful collaboration. demonstrate the importance of biological and inher- In the early 1990s the Finnish twin cohort ited factors in alcohol use, abuse and related studies were expanded to focus on health-related behaviours in a large-scale population -based twin behaviors and their development in adolescence. The study. Professor Irma Moilanen from Oulu has con- FinnTwin16 and FinnTwin12 studies are intensive, tinued this fine tradition of twin studies in her longitudinal studies of two five-year birth cohorts studies over more than two decades in child and (1975–1979 & 1983–1987) of twins initially aged 16 adolescent psychiatry. and 12 respectively, their parents and sibs. They are I have been involved in the creation and follow- now in their waves of data collection. While the up of several large-scale cohort studies of twins since health of the twins is of interest, as seen in our reports 1976. The older Finnish Twin Cohort of twin pairs on asthma and atopy, the main thrust of the studies is then aged 18 and over was created in 1974 from pop- to examine the development of behaviors such as ulation register data; baseline information collected alcohol use, smoking and physical inactivity, as well as by a broad-based socio-medical questionnaire in 1975 the role of genetics and environment in that develop- on nearly 14 000 twin pairs. Follow-up questionnaire surveys were carried out in 1981 and 1990, and ment. Professor Richard Rose, Indiana University, numerous selected samples of twins have participated and Professor Lea Pulkkinen, University of Jyvaskyla, in more intensive medical and behavioural studies. have been key collaborators. These two studies are the Thus, follow-up of this cohort has now continued for basis for many presentations at this congress. the quarter of a century, with the publication of I would also like to thank everyone else with numerous research reports on medical, genetic and whom I have had the pleasure of working over the behavioural questions. Though the original purpose years, our research staff and above all, the twins and of the study was to examine the relationship between their families in Finland. smoking and medical outcomes, the broad data col- Finally, I would like to thank all members of the lection, large sample size and long follow-up have Society for their support and cooperation during the permitted many other interesting questions to be two terms that I have served as Secretary-General of addressed. We now have several ongoing studies in ISTS, in particular the two boards and presidents psychiatric genetics, the field of James Shields. While Robert Derom and Elizabeth Bryan. Twin Research December 2001 485 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.33.42, on 28 Sep 2021 at 02:33:58, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1375/twin.4.6.484.